Mental/Physical Preparation Before A Run

Stuart R. submitted a comment that he claps his hands together before each run to increase his tactile sensitivity. I replied that this was great and that I also have a routine I do before each run. It just takes a few seconds once you learn it. Feel free to throw in some hand clapping!

This may seem a little silly. That’s OK. It’s just what I do based upon what I’ve learned in the various athletic-type competitions, namely wrestling and internal and external martial arts throughout my life, as applied to autocross driving competition. I suggest you try it and then modify to suit.

Of course, this kind of thing (not this procedure in particular) applies equally to any important human performance. An example might be a business or technical presentation. I gave literally hundreds of those during my career. I’m off-the-charts introverted by nature, so this was initially a very difficult endeavor which required years of study and practice to achieve competence. The point is that all people who reach a high-level in any type of performance make sure their body and mind are in the correct state before they begin.

Here’s my routine. I usually do this just before being released from grid to head to the start:

1. Hold your two hands up to either side of the wheel but don’t grip it yet. Now, without hardly making any movement, push your arm joints open. First the shoulder joint, then the elbow, then the wrist, then the palm, then extend through all the finger joints. Think of a wave of expansion traveling down your arms. Now relax and allow all the skeletal muscle to hang from the bones. Do this three times. Push the joints open, release the skeletal muscles. One more time: push the joints open, then totally release the skeletal muscles.
2. Now grip the wheel lightly and release the shoulders and elbows, sinking down until the entire weight of the arms is hanging from your hand grip. Focus on feeling the weight of your arms pulling down on your neck and upper back and your hands. The weight of the arms is producing a light stretch in your shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. (This is pulling the joints open where step 1 was pushing the joints open.)
3. With your foot, tap the gas pedal, then the brake, then gas, then brake, then gas then brake. If you left foot brake you should also move the left foot around and tap the brake and the rest point a few times.
4. Now gaze out the windshield into the distance, seeing everything out in front of the car, both what’s straight ahead and what’s in the periphery, and say to yourself, “Now, now, now, there is only the now.”

Explanation

Some people (like me) are naturally untrusting and need an explanation before they can attempt anything. This is for those people.

Steps 1 and 2 are a standard procedure in some internal arts like T’ai Chi Ch’uan and Chi Gung. The idea is to activate and stretch the fascia while relaxing/releasing the skeletal muscles. This promotes blood flow to the hands. This immediately increases the tactile sensitivity in the hands and activates the neural pathways that control movement in the arms.

Step 3 activates the neural pathways down to the feet, priming everything for action.

Step 4 is to “get you out of your head” and into the moment. This is to set your mind up to drive what you see and feel. We want to make sure you’re not trying to “remember” the course and drive too much from memory. It takes huge processing power for a beginner to “remember” the course, taking away from the ability to actually drive.